Nicodemus' sense of need: the necessity of new birth

But there was a man (John 3) -- and that a Pharisee -- who was
not satisfied with this inoperative conviction. His conscience was
reached. Seeing Jesus, and hearing His testimony, had produced a
sense of need in his heart. It is not the knowledge of grace, but
it is with respect to man's condition a total change. He knows
nothing of the truth, but he has seen that it is in Jesus, and he
desires it. He has also at once an instinctive sense that the world
will be against him; and he comes by night. The heart fears the
world as soon as it has to do with God; for the world is opposed to
Him. The friendship of the world is enmity against God. This sense
of need made the difference in the case of Nicodemus. He had been
convinced like the others. Accordingly he says, "We know that thou
art a teacher come from God." And the source of this conviction
was the miracles. But Jesus stops him short; and that on account of
the true need felt in the heart of Nicodemus. The work of blessing
was not to be wrought by teaching the old man. Man needed to be
renewed in the source of his nature, without which he could not see
the kingdom.* The things of God are spiritually discerned; and man
is carnal, he has not the Spirit. The Lord does not go beyond the
kingdom -- which, moreover, was not the law -- for Nicodemus ought
to have known something about the kingdom. But He does not begin to
teach the Jews as a prophet under the law. He presents the kingdom
itself; but to see it, according to His testimony, a man must be
born again. But the kingdom as thus come in the carpenter's Son
could not be seen without a wholly new nature, it struck no chord
of man's comprehension or Jews' expectation, though testimony to it
was amply given in word and work: as to entering and having a part
in it there is more development as to the how. Nicodemus sees no
farther than the flesh. {*That is, as it was then come. They saw
the carpenter's Son. In glory, of course, every eye on earth shall
see it.}

The communication of new life through the Word of God and the Spirit

The Lord explains Himself. Two things were necessary -- to be
born of water, and of the Spirit. Water cleanses. And, spiritually,
in his affections, heart, conscience, thoughts, actions, etc., man
lives, and in practice is morally purified, through the
application, by the power of the Spirit, of the word of God, which
judges all things, and works in us livingly new thoughts and
affections. This is the water; it is withal the death of the
flesh. The true water which cleanses in a christian way came forth
from the side of a dead Christ. He came by water and blood, in the
power of cleansing and of expiation. He sanctifies the assembly by
cleansing it through the washing of water by the word. "Ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." It is
therefore the mighty word of God which, since man must be born
again in the principle and source of his moral being, judges, as
being death, all that is of the flesh.* But there is in fact the
communication of a new life; that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit, is not flesh, has its nature from the Spirit. It is not the
Spirit -- that would be an incarnation; but this new life is
spirit. It partakes of the nature of its origin. Without this, man
cannot enter into the kingdom. But this is not all. If it was a
necessity for the Jew, who already was nominally a child of the
kingdom, for here we deal with what is essential and true, it was
also a sovereign act of God, and consequently it is accomplished
wherever the Spirit acts in this power. "So is every one that is
born of the Spirit." This in principle opens the door to the
Gentiles. {*Observe here that baptism, instead of being the sign of
the gift of life, is the sign of death. We are baptised to His
death. In coming up out of the water, we begin a new life in
resurrection (all that belonged to the natural man being reckoned
to be dead in Christ, and passed away for ever). "Ye are dead"; and
"he that is dead is freed [justified] from sin." But we live also
and have a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Thus Peter compares baptism to the deluge, through which
Noah was saved, but which destroyed the old world, that had, as it
were, a new life when it emerged from the flood.}

Heavenly things revealed by the Son of Man

Nevertheless Nicodemus, as a master of Israel, ought to have
understood this. The prophets had declared that Israel was to
undergo this change, in order to enjoy the fulfilment of the
promises (see Ezek. 36), which God had given them with regard to
their blessing in the holy land. But Jesus spoke of these things in
an immediate way, and in connection with the nature and the glory
of God Himself. A master in Israel ought to have known that which
the sure word of prophecy contained. The Son of God declared that
which He knew, and that which He had seen with His Father. The
defiled nature of man could not be in relationship with Him who
revealed Himself in heaven whence Jesus came. The glory (from the
fulness of which He came, and which formed therefore the subject of
His testimony as having seen it, and from which the kingdom had its
origin) could have nothing in it that was defiled. They must be
born again to possess it. He bore testimony therefore, as having
come from above and knowing that which was suitable to God His
Father. Man did not receive His testimony. Convinced outwardly by
miracles he might be; but to receive that which was befitting the
presence of God was another thing. And if Nicodemus could not
receive the truth in its connection with the earthly part of the
kingdom, of which even the prophets had spoken, what would he and
the other Jews do if Jesus spoke of heavenly things? Nevertheless
no one could learn anything about them by any other means. No one
had gone up there and come down again to bring back word. Jesus
only, in virtue of what He was, could reveal them -- the Son of man
on earth, existing at the same time in heaven, the manifestation to
men of that which was heavenly, of God Himself in man -- as God
being in heaven and everywhere -- as the Son of man being before
the eyes of Nicodemus and of all. Nevertheless He was to be
crucified, and thus lifted up from the world to which He had come
as the manifestation of the love of God in all His ways and of God
Himself, and so only could the door be opened for sinful men into
heaven, so only a link formed for man with it.

The necessity of the death of the Son of Man as atonement for Sin

For this brought out another fundamental truth. If heaven was in
question, something more was needed than being born again. Sin
existed. It must be put away for those who should have eternal
life. And if Jesus, coming down from heaven, was come to impart
this eternal life to others, He must, in undertaking this work, put
sin away -- be thus made sin -- in order that the dishonour done to
God should be washed away, and the truth of His character (without
which there is nothing sure, or good, or righteous) maintained. The
Son of man must be lifted up, even as the serpent was lifted up in
the wilderness, that the curse, under which the people were dying,
might be removed. His divine testimony rejected, man, as he was
down here, showed himself to be incapable of receiving blessing
from above. He must be redeemed, his sin expiated and put away; he
must be treated according to the reality of his condition, and
according to the character of God who cannot deny Himself. Jesus in
grace undertook to do this. It was necessary that the Son of man
should be lifted up, rejected from the earth by man, accomplishing
the atonement before the God of righteousness. In a word, Christ
comes with the knowledge of what heaven is and divine glory. In
order that man might share it, the Son of man must die -- must take
the place of expiation -- outside the earth.* Observe here the deep
and glorious character of that which Jesus brought with Him, of the
revelation He made. {*On the cross, Christ is not on the earth, but
lifted up from it, rejected ignominiously by man, but withal
through this presented as a victim on the altar to God.}

The gift of God's Son and the gift of eternal life to all believers

The cross, and the absolute separation between man on earth and
God -- this is the meeting-place of faith and God; for there is at
once the truth of man's condition, and the love that meets
it. Thus, in approaching the holy place from the camp, the first
thing they met on going through the gate of the court was the
altar. It presented itself to every one that quitted the world
without, and entered in. Christ, lifted up from the earth, draws
all men to Him. But if (owing to man's state of alienation and
guilt) it needed that the Son of man should be lifted up from the
earth, in order that whosoever believes in Him should have
everlasting life, there was another aspect of this same glorious
fact; God had so loved the world that He had given His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should have
everlasting life. On the cross we see the necessity morally of the
death of the Son of man; we see the ineffable gift of the Son of
God. These two truths unite in the common object of the gift of
eternal life to all believers. And if it was to all believers, it
was a question of man, of God, and of heaven, and went outside the
promises made to the Jews, and the limits of God's dealings with
that people. For God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn
it, but to save it. But salvation is by faith; and he who believes
in the coming of the Son, putting all things now to the test, is
not condemned (his state is decided thereby); he who believes not
is condemned already, he has not believed in the only begotten Son
of God, he has manifested his condition.

God's just condemnation: the love of darkness, proof of evil works

And this is the thing that God lays to their charge. Light is
come into the world, and they have loved darkness because their
works were evil. Could there be a more just subject of
condemnation? It was no question of their not finding pardon, but
of their preferring darkness to light that they might continue in
sin.

The contrast between John the Baptist and Christ

The rest of the chapter presents the contrast between the
positions of John and of Christ. They are both before the eye. The
one is the faithful friend of the Bridegroom, living only for Him;
the other is the Bridegroom, to whom all belongs: the one, in
himself, an earthly man, great as might be the gift he had received
from heaven; the other from heaven Himself, and above all. The
bride was His. The friend of the Bridegroom, hearing His voice, was
full of joy. Nothing more beautiful than this expression of John
the Baptist's heart, inspired by the Lord's presence, near enough
to Jesus to be glad and rejoice that Jesus was all. Thus it ever
is.

John's testimony and that of the One from heaven

With respect to the testimony, John bore witness in connection
with earthly things. For that end he was sent. He who Himself came
from heaven was above all, and bore witness of heavenly things, of
that which He had seen and heard. No one received His
testimony. Man was not of heaven. Without grace one believes
according to one's own thoughts. But in speaking as a man on the
earth, Jesus spoke the words of God; and he who received His
testimony set to his seal that God was true. For the Spirit is not
given by measure. As a witness the testimony of Jesus was the
testimony of God Himself; His words, the words of God. Precious
truth! Moreover, He was the Son,* and the Father loved Him, and had
given all things into His hand. This is another glorious title of
Christ, another aspect of His glory. But the consequences of this
for man were eternal. It was not almighty help to pilgrims, nor
faithfulness to promises, so that His people could trust in Him in
spite of all. It was the quickening life-giving Son of the
Father. All was comprised in it. "He who believeth in the Son hath
everlasting life, he who believeth not shall not see life." He
remains in his guilt. The wrath of God abides on him. {*The
question presents itself naturally, where John's testimony closes
and the evangelist's begins. The last two verses, I apprehend, are
the evangelist's.}

Summary of Chapter 3

All this is a kind of introduction. The ministry of the Lord,
properly so called, comes after. John (v. 24) was not yet cast into
prison. It was not till after that event that the Lord began His
public testimony. The chapter we have been considering explains
what His ministry was, the character in which He came, His
position, the glory of His Person, the character of the testimony
He bore, the position of man in connection with the things of which
He spake, beginning with the Jews, and going on, by the new birth,
the cross, and the love of God, to His rights as come into the
world, and the supreme dignity of His own Person, to His properly
divine testimony, to His relationship with the Father, the object
of whose love He was, and who had given all things into His
hand. He was the faithful witness, and that of heavenly things (see
John 3: 13), but He was also the Son Himself come from the Father.
Everything for man rested on faith in Him. The Lord comes out from
Judaism, while presenting the testimony of the prophets, and brings
from heaven the direct testimony of God and of glory, showing the
only ground on which we can have a part in it. Jew or Gentile must
be born again; and heavenly things could only be entered by the
cross, the wondrous proof of God's love to the world. John gives
place to Him, bringing out -- not in public testimony to Israel but
to his disciples -- the true glory of His Person and of His work*
in this world. The thought of the bride and Bridegroom is, I
believe, general. John says indeed that he is not the Christ, and
that the earthly bride belongs to Jesus; but He has never taken
her; and John speaks of His rights, which for us are realised in a
better land and another clime than this world. It is, I repeat, the
general idea. But we have now entered on the new ground of a new
nature, the cross, and the world and God's love to it. {*Observe
here, that the Lord -- while not concealing (v. 11-13) the
character of His testimony, as indeed He could not -- speaks of the
necessity of His death, and of the love of God. John speaks of the
glory of His Person. Jesus magnifies His Father by submitting to
the necessity which the condition of men imposed on Him, if He
would bring them into a new relationship with God. "God," said He,
"hath so loved." John magnifies Jesus. All is perfect and in
place. There are four points in that which is said with regard to
Jesus: His supremacy; His testimony -- this is the Baptist's
testimony to Him. What follows (v. 35, 36) -- His having all things
given to Him by the Father who loved Him, life everlasting in
contrast with the wrath that is the portion of the unbeliever from
God -- is rather the new revelation; the purpose of God giving all
things to Him, and His being Himself eternal life come down from
heaven, is that of John the evangelist.}